


Supernatural, Season 4, Episode 1, Lazarus Rising

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s04e01 Lazarus Rising, Meta, Nonfiction, Season Premiere, Season/Series 04, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 13:20:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16119302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and later seasons. Complete.





	Supernatural, Season 4, Episode 1, Lazarus Rising

Open to flashy lights and human eyes.

Eventually, using a lighter, Dean finds himself in his coffin.

Who buried him with a lighter, and why did they? Also: Way to go, Cas. You can drag him out of Hell, but you can’t dig up the grave, lift the casket out, and open it?

He manages to dig himself out, and both the shots of him doing so and of standing near his grave are extremely powerful.

Interestingly, Dean was buried with his watch, ring, and a bracelet of some kind on. It doesn’t surprise me he wasn’t put in a suit, but why would Sam and/or Bobby bury him with all this?

Since Cas didn’t put Dean’s opened coffin somewhere near humans but out of sight, Dean is forced to walk in the hot sun. Making it to an abandoned gas station, he hoarsely calls out, “Hello.” When no one answers, he wraps his jacket around his hand, breaks the window, goes in, and immediately goes for the bottled water.

He looks at a newspaper. It gives the date of September 18, 2008 and the day of Thursday. Fanfic has taught me this is the day Castiel is an angel of.

He starts to wash up, and I didn’t expect this the first time I watched the episode, but now, I can’t help but expect him to look up and see Cas’s reflection in the mirror. After washing his face, he lifts up his shirt to reveal smooth flesh and has a flashback to his tortured, broken body in Hell. Rolling up his sleeve, he sees a raised handprint on his shoulder.

Showing how truly righteous he is, he starts to steal food, water, porn, and money. I have no problem with him drinking the water and eating the candy bar or with him taking more food and water on the road with him, but to the porn and money, I say: Really? Forgetting the morality of all this, there’s also the fact store might have security cameras.

The radio and TV start going berserk, and he immediately starts salting the windows. Shattering, glass knocks him down.

Great job, Cas. You heal him, bring him back to life, and within the first minute, you screw up both his breathing and possibly his nervous system by forcing him to break out of his coffin and exposing him to intense heat by forcing him to walk what I assume was a sizable stretch on muscles he hasn’t used for quite some time. Then, you give him tons of tiny little cuts and probably a few big ones on the skin you made as good as new. Oh, and you also likely gave him a headache and caused pain in his ears.

Finding a payphone, he eventually gets Bobby.

Okay, maybe, taking the money might be justifiable, but the porn, I stand firm on.

Bobby doesn’t seem to recognise his voice.

“Bobby?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s me.”

“Who’s me?”

“Dean.”

Bobby hangs up.

Dean calls him again, and Bobby threatens to kill him if he continues these unfunny prank calls.

Hanging up, Dean sees a nearby car. I can’t tell if it was there earlier, or if this is a sign of Cas finally starting to help. Hot wiring it, he takes off.

He goes to Bobby’s house, and Bobby’s reaction is to try to kill him with a knife. Dean gives Bobby’s full name, Robert Steven Singer, talks about Karen’s possession, and says Bobby’s the closest thing to a father he has. He manages to get the knife, and to prove he isn’t a shape-shifter or anything else taking Dean’s form, he cuts his arm with the silver knife.

Bobby finally gives Dean, Mister I Wuv Hugs, a desperately needed hug. This is followed by him splashing holy water in Dean’s face.

After he’s finally convinced it’s Dean, they talk about how this doesn’t make sense. Dean says he remembers dying, and then, he woke up in the coffin.

Even with the earlier flashback of his broken, tortured body, I don’t think he’s lying. It was extremely brief, and he didn’t pay much attention to it. Right now, he really isn’t remembering anything.

Asking about Sam, he isn’t happy Bobby hasn’t been taking care of him. Bobby explains he tried, but Dean’s death hit him hard, too. He doesn’t even bother trying to point out Sam is an adult, and if he wants to completely cut contact, Bobby has little choice but to accept it.

Dean asks why he was buried. Bobby says he wanted Dean salted and burned, but Sam wouldn’t have it. Some part of me is surprised Bobby didn’t do it after Sam left. He continues Sam said Dean would need his body once Sam found a way to get him back.

“Dammit, Sammy,” Dean exclaims. Declaring whatever raised him isn’t good news, he shows the handprint to Bobby. He thinks Sam made a demon deal.

The next scene has him calling to get the GPS on Sam’s phone turned on, and when Bobby asks how he knows what alias Sam would use, he answers, “Are you kidding me? What don’t I know about that kid?”

Hi, irony. Getting comfy?

He asks about all the empty liquor bottles around the house, and Bobby explains how having one son die and the other refuse to talk to him is not an easy thing to cope with. Dean discovers Sam is in Pontiac, Illinois. This is near were Dean was buried.

So, he was already near Sam, left, and now has to turn around and go right back.

In Illinois, they find Ruby in a different host in Sam’s room. The fact she’s unblinking as she grumpily asks where the pizza it takes two people to deliver is awesome. Dean thinks they got the wrong room, but appearing, Sam manages not to say her name before seeing Dean.

“Heya, Sammy,” Dean greets.

Sam tries to kill Dean, and putting on a show of screaming, Ruby doesn’t run.

Protecting Dean, Bobby assures Sam it’s really Dean. Dean points out Sam did this, and Sam makes it clear, no, he didn’t. Upon being convinced it’s really Dean, Sam fiercely hugs him.

Ruby ‘asks’ if they’re together, and Sam ‘explains’, no, this is his brother. She suggests she could go, and once fully dressed, she tells him to call her. Agreeing, he assigns her a fake name. Playing hurt, she ‘corrects’ him with a different fake name.

After she’s gone, Dean is still convinced Sam had something to do with his resurrection. Sam admits to trying, but he ran into the problem of all demons refusing to make a deal with him.

Assuring Sam he believes him, Dean says it’s okay Sam couldn’t save him, because, he didn’t want to be saved by Sam giving up his soul or worse.

The next scene has the three of them drinking beers, and I really want to know how they manage to open them without a bottle opener. Bobby isn’t happy Sam has been hunting down Lilith without him, and upon finding Ruby’s bra, Dean teases Sam. They realise the demons Sam’s been chasing arrived in Illinois at the same time Dean was resurrected.

Bobby suggests they meet a psychic friend of his to try to get some answers. He goes to arrange this, and Sam gives Dean his amulet back. He asks about Hell, and Dean explains he has no real memory of it.

In the bathroom, Dean looks at himself in the mirror, and I still expect Cas to pop up. Instead, Dean has more brief flashes of being tortured.

Outside, the three are getting ready to go, despite the fact they’re all recently drank, and Bobby orders them to follow him and keep up. Sam gives Dean the keys to the Impala, even though all three of them should either take transportation driven by a completely sober person or wait until the morning. Dean happily greets the Impala with, “Hey, sweetheart, did you miss me?”

Inside, however, he is not happy to find Sam has installed an IPod jack complete with an IPod. He’s even less happy with Sam’s choice in music.

On the road, he asks how Sam survived Lilith, and neither Sam nor Lilith know. She tried to kill him, literally couldn’t, and skedaddled pretty fast afterwards.

Dean asks about Ruby, and Sam answers she’s dead, for now. His pants do not catch on fire, because, if they did, it might actually force the brothers to acknowledge what they still struggle with seasons later.

Dean asks if Sam has been using his psychic powers, and Sam answers in the negative. Dean isn’t sure he believes him, but he wants to.

At the psychic’s house, her name is Pamela. She and Bobby hug, and she briefly manages to pick him up. Then, she eyes up the brothers appreciatively before leading them in.

So far, she’s got nothing on Dean’s mysterious return. She thinks a séance is the next step.

As they’re getting ready, she leans down to get something, and Dean nudges Sam and nods to a **Jesse Forever** tattoo on her lower back. Dean starts to actively flirting with her, and she flirts right back.

This might be awkward for Bobby if he ever fully realises his de facto son-in-law was the one who so badly harmed his friend just moments after she and his son were all but going at it. I mean, Cas couldn’t care less about the flirting, but still, the potential for unfortunate implications is there.

Of course, it’s already awkward enough when Pamela invites Sam to join in with her and Dean.

After she’s out of earshot, Dean shakes his finger at Sam. “You are not invited.”

At the table, instead of taking Dean’s hand, she touches him somewhere under the table. Jumping, he informs her his rescuer didn’t touch him there.

Oh, in fanfic, Cas definitely has. In fact, wherever she touched him, there’s a good chance Cas has had his lips, teeth, and mouth on and/or around the area.

Putting her hand on the handprint, she starts the séance. Eventually, the name of Castiel is revealed. Ignoring his warnings, she keeps trying to see him, and her eyes catch on fire.

Cas could have said, ‘I’m an angel, and humans can’t see my true form without losing their eyes,’ but it doesn’t seem as if he did. As far as the audience knows, he also never tries to heal her or even just goes to apologise.

Bobby orders them to call 911, Sam does, and Bobby and Dean hold a sobbing Pamela. I have to wonder how Sam explained this on the 911 call and how Pamela explained things to the EMTs and at the hospital.

Next, at a diner, Sam and Dean establish, aside from being blind, Pamela is doing well in the ICU. Dean shows guilt at being part of the reason for her being blind. He wants to summon Castiel and work him over, but Sam points out, with what he did to Pamela, they might not be able to work him over once summoned before he does something much worse to them.

Sam’s idea is to find some demons in town and work them over.

As it turns out, this is their chance. Their waitress sits down with them. Being dubbed Flo by Dean, she reveals herself to be one a demon along with the rest of the café people.

This is one of those scenes where I hate Dean and don’t like how either of the brothers does things.

There’s some back and forth where it’s established none of them know what or who brought Dean up, and he realises the demons are too afraid to do anything but taunt him. Instead of exorcising every one of them, he backhands Flo before punching her in the face.

There’s an innocent woman being possessed. If Flo had used the vessel to physically attack Dean or Sam, I’d have no problem with this. If a woman attacks a man, he has every right to defend himself. If a person out of their facilities attacks a person in full control, the person in full control has every right to defend him or herself.

However, Dean just hit a woman, and Sam doesn’t care. With me, though, I have this little thing of hating anyone, fictional or not, who hits a kid or a woman without a legitimate excuse of defence.

They leave, and Dean snarkily leaves some money.

Seriously, they’re just going to leave all these people possessed? Some heroes they are.

Outside, Sam voices objections to leaving. However, his objection is not due to this being an excellent opportunity to exorcise the demons. Dean immediately says they’re leaving them, because, his one knife is no match for three of them.

Exorcism.

Sam insists they need to take them.

Exorcism!

Dean firmly declares, “We’re dealing with one bad mofo here. One thing at a time.”

Later, in a motel room, there’s a mirror on the ceiling. Sam sneaks out. Once he’s gone, Cas tries to talk to Dean.

After the first time, I’d think he’d get the fact Dean isn’t able to safely hear or see him.

As it is, the ceiling mirror and the windows all shatter. Bobby bursts in, and the next scene has them in a car together. Aside from the continual ringing in his head and the likely tons of painful cuts, Dean is doing fine.

Dean calls Sam, and Sam says he went out for a burger.

It’s shown he’s gone back to the diner from earlier. He claims he took the Impala out of a force of habit, and I think this part’s true.

In turn, Dean claims he and Bobby are going out for a beer.

They both hang up, and Bobby wants to know why Sam was just lied to. The answer is, he and Dean are summoning Castiel, and Dean doesn’t want Sam to try to stop them. Bobby points out Sam has a point, but Dean couldn’t care less.

Meanwhile, inside the diner, Sam finds one of the one possessed men dead with burnt out eyes. Attacking Sam, Flo reveals her eyes have been burnt out.

Either Cas can’t exorcise people, or as the brothers often do, he decided to kill them instead. Neither is comforting. It’s even less comforting he left another woman he blinded possessed.

Exorcising Flo, Sam kills her with his psych powers, but unfortunately, the vessel dies along with her. I blame Cas more for this than I do Sam.

The door opens, and Sam’s supposed one-night stand from earlier comes in.

“What in the hell is going on around here, Ruby?”

She has no idea. Sam thinks a high-level demon might be responsible, but she says this is something much bigger than any demon.

At a warehouse, there are symbols covering the place. According to Bobby, they’re from every religion he knows of. They also have Ruby’s knife, guns, salt, and various other weapons.

Back at the diner, Ruby asks if Sam has told Dean about her and his psychic training. She offers to step out of his life for a bit. He bluntly says he doesn’t exactly trust her, but he thinks developing his psychic powers and using them to stop demons is a good thing.

At the warehouse, Dean and Bobby are antsy due to Cas refusing to show.

Then, he makes his grand entrance. Credit goes to everyone involved; it is a truly grand entrance.

The lights shoot sparks, the roof literally rattles, the barred door is broken, and a man oozing purpose and detachment walks in. He’s wearing a suit, a loosened blue tie, and a yellowish trench coat. Bobby and Dean both repeatedly shoot at him, and he continues unflinchingly walking.

Putting the gun down, Dean grabs his knife. Hiding it behind his back, he asks, “Who are you?”

“I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition,” Castiel answers. His odd tone, mingled with pride, highlights the ambiguousness and otherworldliness of his nature.

“Yeah, thanks for that,” Dean says, and amusingly, at the height of his not understanding sarcasm phase, Cas simply nods with something akin to a smile on his face.

Dean stabs him with the knife, and he simply looks down, pulls it out, and drops it onto the ground. Bobby tries to knock with out with some sort of tool. He grabs the weapon, and after briefly placing two fingers on Bobby’s forehead, Bobby is knocked out. “We need to talk, Dean.” Then, glancing back down at Bobby, he adds, “Alone.”

The next scene has Dean kneeling over Bobby. Meanwhile, Cas is reading Dean and Bobby’s journal. “Your friend is alive.”

“Who are you?”

“Castiel.”

“Yeah, I figured that much. I mean: What are you?”

The person you’re going to fall so hard for. The person who, only a few episodes later, will have already have begun to fall in love with you.

“I’m an angel of the lord.”

Standing up, Dean declares there’s no such thing.

Putting the journal down, Cas turns to fully face him. He says no faith is Dean’s problem.

Actually, I think his problem is a severely selective moral code, alcoholism, misogyny, and an unhealthy placement of his brother above his own well-being.

There’s lighting and thunder, and against the wall behind Cas, the shadow of his wings appear.

Dean brings up Pamela’s blindness. In embarrassment or regret, Cas looks away and says he warned Pamela not to spy on his true form.

Yet, again, it doesn’t seem as if he told her why. Or tried to heal her or even just give her an apology.

He it was him at the gas station and motel. He explains some humans can safely hear his real voice, and he thought Dean was one of them.

When it comes to the first time, fine, but did he have a reason for thinking it might work better the second time?

“Buddy, next time, lower the volume,” is Dean’s thought on the matter. He asks what visage Cas is in, now, and isn’t happy about Cas possessing someone.

“He’s a devout man. He actually prayed for this,” Cas responds.

I don’t think Cas’s tendency to omit things is, right now, conscious, but this shows he’s always had the tendency. It’s doubtful Jimmy would have said yes and only asked for his family’s well-being if he knew all the things he would go through.

Dean isn’t buying what Cas is selling. “Who are you, really?”

Looking somewhat sad and curious, Cas tilts his head. “I told you.”

“Right. And why would an angel rescue me from Hell?”

Cas’s response is interesting, because, some of it doesn’t exactly fit with his later characterisation.

On its own, this could just mean he underwent well-done character development. However, I think his original characterisation is the product of him only being slotted to be in a few episodes. Although, given some scenes in his early episodes, I think someone either realised how epic the character could be and/or was suitably impressed with Misha Collins and actively worked at whetting the audience’s appetite so that the character/actor would be given a bigger role.

At first, Cas steps forward and tries to claim good things do happen. When Dean expresses his disbelief, Cas steps closer, tilts his head, and inquires, “What’s the matter?” The realisation hits, and he answers his own question, “You don’t think you deserve to be saved.”

Rather than denying this, Dean simply asks why Cas did it.

A sort of resolve coming over him, Cas straightens up. “Because, God commanded it. Because, we have work for you.”

Cas isn’t exactly gentle with most people. He’s blunt and literal, and when he tries to be gentle, he’s often awkward about it.

When he explains good things do happen, it seems as if he truly wants Dean to believe it. When he realises Dean won’t, he follows by giving Dean a colder, pragmatic reason Dean can accept.

Both are true. Cas does believe good things can and do happen, and he did rescue Dean under orders, because, Dean is meant to serve a greater purpose, but either’s he’s significantly confused himself, or he just consciously manipulated Dean, and he did it well.

Though he does manipulate Dean later, both consciously and unconsciously, he’s never as good as he is here.

After this dramatic announcement, the episode ends with Dean staring at Castiel.

I know Cas/Dean is never going to be canon, but if I thought there were a chance, I’d hope there’d be a scene of someone reacting to the story of their extremely unconventional meet cute.

Fin.


End file.
